Your career as human beings and as Americans and as graduates of Yale is to stand on the fulcrum between fear and faith—fear at your back, faith in front of you. Which way will you lean? Which way will you move? Move forward. Ever forward.
speech graduation courage
Tom Hanks
Yale University Class Day 2011, 2011
We're all going to get cancelled one day. So do the show you want to do.
speech graduation authenticity
Phil Rosenthal
Hofstra University Commencement 2011, 2011
At least I get to pursue what I want. That's something not to take for granted—the actual pursuit of happiness.
speech graduation gratitude
Phil Rosenthal
Hofstra University Commencement 2011, 2011
Your degree will be good for something, just maybe not what you thought originally. If you're open to it, sometimes life presents you with what you're supposed to be.
speech graduation self discovery
Phil Rosenthal
Hofstra University Commencement 2011, 2011
A good education in the United States of America, one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on this planet, remains a gift for some when it should be a right for all.
speech graduation education
John Legend
Kean University Commencement 2011, 2011
I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation, and we must strive to make equality in education a reality, not just a theory.
speech graduation education
John Legend
Kean University Commencement 2011, 2011
You have so much power, so much opportunity. Make sure this education, this amazing gift, doesn't go to waste.
speech graduation education
John Legend
Kean University Commencement 2011, 2011
To create in those waters, we must have more than an optimist's escapism. Today, to create is to hope. To create is to live.
speech graduation creativity
Makoto Fujimura
Belhaven University Commencement 2011, 2011
The World that Ought to Be is that which is already embedded in our senses. God's hand touches us, even through the cold earth of death and despair.
speech graduation faith
Makoto Fujimura
Belhaven University Commencement 2011, 2011
Love is today mingled with grief. And yet love grows greater. Create in and through that love. Calm the seas of your anxiety and infuse new life deep into the poisoned wells of culture.
speech graduation love
Makoto Fujimura
Belhaven University Commencement 2011, 2011
Sign languages in schools for the deaf are not only options but they're the human right of deaf children and students, and it is on par with spoken languages.
speech graduation justice
Gary Malkowski
Gallaudet University Commencement 2011, 2011
The right to access language and language acquisition is a necessary prerequisite for exercising the right to human dignity, freedom of expression, and all other human rights.
speech graduation justice
Gary Malkowski
Gallaudet University Commencement 2011, 2011